City's deer task force is doing good work – Oneonta Daily Star

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Updated: December 2, 2022 @ 1:36 am

We hope those who have been critical of a perceived lack of action on the problem of deer in the city of Oneonta took note of this week’s presentation by the Deer Management Taskforce to the Common Council’s Quality of Life and Infrastructure Committee. We sure did.
Deer have found a comfortable spot in the city, protected from natural predators and hunters, and provided with a virtual smorgasbord of delectable plants to eat.
With traffic moving more slowly that it does on highways outside the city limits, our city deer are less likely to end up as roadkill than are their rural cousins.
All that safety and luxury has caused the urban herd to grow, and to come into conflict with the human population within those same borders. Hence, the creation of the task force.
The task force, chaired by Betsy Holland, has been meeting regularly for months to come up with a plan. Holland said the committee met “to help find solutions,” to the overpopulation of deer in the city.
Holland has first-hand experience with the problem.
She told Monday’s assembly her garden has been eaten by deer and deer have blocked her driveway as she tried to get to work. She said she tried smelly liquids, banging pots and pans, and letting her dog out to bark at the deer but the deer didn’t run away or stop eating her garden.
Deer that aren’t scared by dogs are bold deer, indeed. What’s a little noise to a city dweller?
Another task force member Sandy Bright, gave a report to the committee. The report included some background about the nation’s deer population, the mission of the task force, the findings of the task force and some solutions to help reduce the deer population.
She said hunters kill about 210,000 deer per year, while 65,000 deer die in collisions with vehicles in the state.
The task force conducted a city-wide survey and presented its results. We’re not sure what to make of them.
Respondents to the survey rated the following as very important: 27% opportunity to view or photograph deer, 59% health and well-being of the deer, 75% negative impacts of deer on people, 74% negative impacts of deer on environment and 47% problems with hunters.
Respondents of the survey said they were affected by the following: deer damage to gardens and plantings around their home 89%; tick-borne disease 38%; deer-related accidents 88%.
The upshot would seem to be that most people are tired of the problems deer are causing, but that some are protective of the beasts.
More alarming than damaged gardens are the confirmed cases of Lyme disease in Otsego County and especially Oneonta, which Bright said have risen rapidly in the past few years. City Health Officer Diane Georgeson reported to the task force on Lyme cases in the 13820 ZIP code during the past three years. The report said eight people tested positive in 2020, 10 in 2021 and 114 so far in 2022.
Bright said by reducing the number of deer in the area, the number of deer ticks that carry Lyme disease will also be reduced.
Bright also said the deer overpopulation in Oneonta has led to fewer birds, which she has noticed.
Members of the taskforce and biology professor Donna Vogler toured Wilber Park to look at the forest to examine sampling of 20 seedlings to see if they have been browsed by deer. They found deer have browsed all but one sapling and most were heavily browsed. “Some have no leaf buds,” Bright said.
The taskforce suggested enclosing saplings in fencing so deer couldn’t reach them to feed and placing a sign on each one explaining why the tree was surrounded by fencing.
A recommendation from the task force, which we hope city residents will take to heart is to avoid feeding the deer, especially in winter. Let them look for food elsewhere.
More controversial, perhaps, but just as important, the task force recommends encouraging more hunting on the outskirts of the city and asking the DEC to issue nuisance hunting licenses.
A nuisance hunt would be held outside the normal hunting season, be sanctioned by the DEC and sharpshooters would apply for the opportunity to hunt by crossbow, Holland said. The sharpshooters would “aim for the brain, and the deer would be dead in three seconds,” she said. “That’s less time than it takes to die at the hands of a hunter who aims for the heart or lungs.”
We know some, in love with the beautiful animals, will oppose such an action, but we agree with Bright that it’s a better, more humane end than being hit by a car or dying of starvation.
Holland said deer killed during the nuisance hunt would processed and the meat is given to local food pantries. Another benefit of fixing the problem.
Council members at Monday’s meeting were noncommittal about solutions, which is proper at this point. There’s more talking that needs to be done.
But we’re glad to see people are doing the work.
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